This invention relates to call center systems and, in particular, to a method and apparatus that provides a notification to all parties on an existing call connection, between a calling party and the call center, of changes in the hold state and/or queued status of the call connection.
It is a problem in the field of call center systems that when an incoming call is received at the call center and all agents are presently occupied, the incoming call is placed on hold in a queue and the calling party must remain on the line to monitor the held state of the call connection. If the calling party places their end of the call connection on hold, the call center is not aware of this call hold status and when the call center extends the call connection to an available agent, the agent does not realize that the calling party has placed the call connection on hold and likely believes that the call connection has been dropped. The agent then disconnects the call and the calling party must reinitiate a call connection to the call center and be placed at the beginning of the queue. In addition, if the call center transmits an announcement to the calling party regarding the queued state of the call, this information is not conveyed to the calling party since the call connection is on hold at the calling party""s end of the call connection.
Therefore, the present implementation of two-way communication connections between a calling party and a call center can be frustrating to both the calling party, since they are captive to the call connection and must remain idle for the duration of the call queue condition, as well as the call center agent who believes that the call connection has been dropped when they encounter a call placed on hold by a calling party. There is presently no system that addresses these call center call queuing problems or conveys call status information to the parties when the calling party places the call on hold.
The above described problems are solved and a technical advance achieved by the present system for transmitting a change in call queued/hold state across a communications network (termed xe2x80x9ccall state notification systemxe2x80x9d herein) that functions to provide an indication to the parties on the existing call connection that the calling party has placed the call on hold and/or the call center has advanced the call connection to the head of the queue for connection to an agent. This is accomplished by enabling the calling party to place their call termination on hold to serve another call or to perform some other task without having to physically monitor the call connection. When the calling party removes the hold state at their terminal device, the call center receives a notification of the reconnection of the calling party to the call connection. In addition, when the call center advances the call connection to the head of the queue, the call state notification system notifies the calling party and, if the call connection is on hold, the call center maintains the calling party""s position at the head of the queue until the calling party returns to the call connection.
The held state determination is performed by the communications system in the communications network that serves the calling party and the call queued status is determined by the call center. The information regarding the queued/held state of the call connection is typically communicated via out-of-band signaling among the various communications systems in the communications network that serve the call connection. The communication system that serves the calling party transmits call hold state data to the call center while the call center and/or the communication system serving the call center transmits data to the communication system that serves the calling party regarding the call queued status of the call connection.
Furthermore, the use of this feature is extensible to data communications connections, multi-media connections, as well as the use of various communications network architectures, including the Internet, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), inter-exchange carriers, and the like.